Posts tagged Stan Bowman

It was not quite the story book ending that US Hockey had in mind as they departed for Sochi sixteen days ago. While the women’s squad sits atop their respective mountain – or at least within sight of the peak as I would still put good money of their success in a seven game series against the Canadians even being down 2-0 in the past six days – the men leave Russia in a state of flux. Having left us all at the cusp of glory four years ago, hopes and expectations were high as the men’s team returned to More >

I’ve got to be honest, the premise of this post is in direct contrast to the implication of the title. I just liked the title, that’s all. As mentioned above, I actually think the reigning Stanley Cup champions are handling this post-Cup season about as well as one could ask. I’m sure Coach Q finds nits to pick and that there are issues and events that crop up from time to time behind the scenes, but generally speaking this team has come into this season and handled their business exactly as you would have drawn it up in the pre-season.

What a fantastic forty-eight hours it’s been eh? At least for us in Chicago that is, can’t speak for the Bostonians I know as I figured I’d give them a full day of recovery before calling to discuss the happenings of Monday night’s Game 6. It was an epic performance by our Blackhawks, one that will stay with everyone who was tuned in to see it for the rest of their lives. In the fallout of the hours since I wanted to put my thoughts and findings to paper to serve as a general catch up to all of the More >

While many of you were still shaking off the cob webs from the night before, visiting WebMD.com to confirm that a Brain Cloudis in fact not a real malady, the Chicago sports media was gathered at Halas Hall on New Year’s Day to hear Bears General Manager Phil Emery offer his rationale for the firing of Lovie Smith twenty-four hours earlier. In what can only be described a breath of fresh air, the new Bears GM, who had previously only spoken to the media on the day he was hired last spring and then again during the bye week this season, More >

Times they are a changing on the Chicago sports scene. I honestly cannot say that there has been a time in this city’s history (at least in my lifetime) where each of our sporting franchises have been in such good hands from a front office perspective. Let’s take a lap around the various franchises for a quick peak at the brains percolating behind the scenes.

The Cubs

The Cubs are in the midst of a 13-5 run, easily their best of the season, and yet the front office is not losing focus of the big picture which involves reloading the entire system More >

Unless you’re one of the seventeen true NHL diehards who is still tuned into league news a full ten days after Lord Stanley has been hoisted, you may not know that this weekend is the NHL Draft. Much like the recent baseball draft, the NHL amatuer selection process is harder to get into because we don’t have a lot of exposure to most of the names that will be called Friday night and Saturday morning, and we most likely won’t see them again for another few years until they get called up to the league from their respective college, Junior, More >

As one of our beloved Chicago teams sees their season crumble to the ground this evening, I feel as though I have finally reached closure on our last sporting heartbreak. Before we get too far along in taking a look at the season that was for the Chicago Blackhawks there are two important items that I’d suggest that you peruse as each says more than anything I can put into words:

The NHL’s trade deadline has passed. Teams have made their moves for better or worse, in a last ditch effort to load up for a deep playoff run or to sell of their spare parts for future draft picks and lottery tickets. Base on your team’s actions this past week you can get a feel for where their ownership and management teams feel they are at and where they want to be. It’s ideally a reality check where each organ-i-zation takes a look at their cards and in the immortal words of Kenny Rogers, decides whether to hold ‘em or More >

If your business is anything like mine every twelve months or so the head mucky-mucks come down from on high and ask for you to look into your crystal ball and tell them how many widgets you plan to sling at your faithful customer base in the next year. It’s a ridiculous exercise when you think about it, as I can’t tell you what I’m doing Wednesday evening let alone how much my different accounts are allocating in my direction next April on their own imaginary spreadsheets. It’s all a sick and twisted dance of the primates. Hairless primates at More >

I’ve racked up a lot of windshield time in the past week as you may have read, and when you find yourself behind the wheel for extended periods of time, particularly when your motorized vehicle presents to you your current Miles Per Gallon (MPG), it’s fun to make up games to pass the time. My personal game this trip was to maximize my MPG at all times.

Now there are a lot of ways to improve the MPG of your car. The first of which is to minimize the amount of time The Wife gets to drive. Talk about killing your More >